Modi’in Rated Best on Services, Poll Says

Modi’in residents are the happiest when it comes to the way their city is run – but residents of Yerushalayim and Haifa believe that their cities could do much better when it comes to serving their residents.

The poll, which was taken by the Midrag organization, which rates professionals and services, queried 5,500 residents of cities around Israel who responded to an online questionnaire. The results were then averaged to the entire population based on demographic analysis. Residents were asked to rate the performance of their cities on a number of parameters – education, sanitation, parking availability, public transportation, parks and others – on a scale of 1 to 5.

Most towns are doing a bit above average, with the average score for all large municipalities (20,000 residents or more) standing at 3.13. Modi’in residents were among the most satisfied, giving their city a score of 3.64, with Ra’anana (3.58), Givatayim (3.51) and Tel Aviv (3.44) following. Among those less happy with their city were residents of Yerushalayim (2.77), Petach Tikvah (2.74) and Haifa (2.69).

Another question asked whether residents felt they were getting their money’s worth for their municipal taxes (arnona) – and in Modi’in, only 5 percent said that they were not, with 43 percent saying that they were getting their money’s worth. The rest considered themselves “partially satisfied.”

On the other side of the equation were the residents of Yerushalayim, 31 percent of whom said they were not getting the services they were paying for. Thirty-five percent of Hod Hasharon residents were dissatisfied, and in Haifa, that figure was 41 percent.

Globes quoted Nachum Ochana, CEO of Midrag, as saying that “as a citizen I am shocked at the difference in efficiency between the private and public sector. In business, if the customer is not satisfied, the business will not remain in business long. In the public sector, the citizenry is the customer base – but they are unable to make their feelings known as they can in the private sector. That is what we have enabled citizens to do.”